Stephen Ferris says the current Irish team has established themselves in the greatest in history after completing the Grand Slam at the weekend.
Ireland's fourth Grand Slam was their first rounded off in Dublin and the first in which all five victories were secured by double digit margins.
Ferris, a key figure in Ireland's first Grand Slam winning team in the modern era in 2009, argues that when the totality of the current side's achievements across 2022 and 2023 are taken into account, they have to be considered as better than all their predecessors.
"Jamie Heaslip, Jerry Flannery and I were asked before the game at the weekend, is this Ireland's greatest ever side?," Ferris told Game On on RTÉ 2fm.
"We all said, 'possibly', 'yes', 'no', 'we're not sure'... but that was before the game. After the game, I think it is.
"What they've achieved in the last year, beating the world champions South Africa in November, going away to New Zealand and winning the series.
"I certainly feel they are the best Irish side that have ever played. Johnny Sexton, in my opinion, is the best Irish player to have ever played as well.
"It's truly remarkable what the guy has achieved in the game. And the only thing left for him to be one of the best players in the history of the game, globally, is to win a Rugby World Cup. They've put themselves in a really good position to be able to achieve that success.
"It's a proud moment to be an Irish fan and I think we all want this World Cup to come sooner rather than later."
The next frontier for Irish rugby is the Rugby World Cup, thus far a tale of woe for Ireland, who remain the only top-tier nation not to progress past the quarter-final stage.
While at least some of this is attributable to misfortune - notably in 2015 when the side were hit by a ruinous injury list - it remains a blot on the record of Irish rugby.
That familiar World Cup misfortune has already struck again in 2023, with Ireland cursed with a wretched draw, almost certainly needing to defeat either France or New Zealand to reach the last four.
The Rugby World Cup: reasons to be optimistic - and reasons to be cautious. @LenihanDonal and @bernardjackman weigh up Ireland's chances after their Grand Slam triumph #RTErugby #AgainstTheHead pic.twitter.com/cBxVTAe4SR
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) March 20, 2023
Despite this, Ferris is confident the class of '23 are perfectly placed to write a new history for Irish rugby in the World Cup.
"I think they've had a massive target on their back for the past couple of years and they're dealing with it really well.
"We always used to want the underdogs tag. But there are born winners in this side. A lot of those guys have come out of the Leinster system and they're predominantly Leinster players.
"As an Irish fan, we're all waiting for teams to figure us out, aren't we?
"We're breaking teams down, we're making busts, we're making line-breaks, we're coming up with these trick-plays - even that ball back inside by Finlay Bealham against France for the Hugo Keenan try was a Joe Schmidt play from seven years ago! Why are teams forgetting about this?
"You sometimes think, surely there's a time when teams will figure this out but I can't see when this is going to happen. And hopefully it doesn't happen during a World Cup.
"Why shouldn't we go on and win it? England did it in 2003. They won a Grand Slam and a World Cup. I'm sure it's something all the boys have spoken about."
